6 October 2009

Mallesons Stephen Jaques has acted for CHAMP Private Equity and its US affiliate, Castle Harlan on their sale of United Malt Holdings (UMH) to GrainCorp Limited for US$655 million.

CHAMP and Castle Harlan acquired UMH in Sept 2006. The sale 3 years later is one of CHAMP's largest exits and reflects emerging exit opportunities for good private equity backed businesses.

The transaction was led by John Haddock, a Director at CHAMP and David Pittaway from Castle Harlan. Closing is expected by mid-late November.

The Mallesons team was led by Partners Peter Cook and Michael Barker in M&A, with Justin Cherrington (Tax), Sharon Henrick (Competition) and Yuen-Yee Cho (Banking). Matt Coull was the lead M&A Senior Associate across the whole deal, with support from many others.

Credit Suisse are acting for GrainCorp as financial advisor and underwriting the equity capital raising.

More information:

Kris Barry, Head of Communications

+612 9296-3716 or +61413 644 388

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